Agi Mishol's "Woman Martyr"

After I fell in love with Walter de la Mare's "Silver" in Mrs. Edna Pickett's sophomore English class, circa 1962, poetry became my passion.

Agi Mishol

Source

Brief Bio Sketch of Agi Mishol

Born to Hungarian Holocaust survivors, Agi Mishol was four years old, when her family relocated to Israel. She and her husband still live in Israel on a farm. She earned her BA and MA degrees in Hebrew literature from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Currently, she serves a writer-in-residence at Tel Aviv University, and she teaches creative writing at Alma College in Tel Aviv. Mishol has published twelve books of poetry, and she was awarded the first Yehuda Amichai Poetry Prize in 2002.

About poetry, Mishol explained in an interview with Lisa Katz:

. . . poetry as I experience it is usually born out of quietness, nothingness. That's poetry's natural background. I often think about it as the image of a fish in water: living in it, the fish doesn't notice the water. Poetry too lives inside this nothingness. Inside the quiet.

Commentary

The speaker in Mishol's four-versagraph poem, "Woman Martyr," reports a disturbing event in which a young woman feigning pregnancy walks into a bakery and blows herself up., Mishol explains the genesis of the poem, "With that poem it was the suicide bomber's last name, Takatka. … Her name sounded like the ticking of a bomb—taka-taka like tick-tock . . . ."

Mishol appends an epigrammatic quotation from Nathan Alterman's "Late Afternoon in the Market": "The evening goes blind, and you are only twenty."

First Versagraph: "You are only twenty"

The first versagraph describes the young woman, Andaleeb Takatka, who is only twenty years old. She is wearing "a broad skirt" to make people think she is pregnant, but her pregnancy "is a bomb"; she is "pregnant with dynamite / and metal shavings." She walks into the market "ticking among the people."

Second Versagraph: "Someone loosened the screws in your head"

In the second versagraph, the speaker psychoanalyzes the young woman: "Someone loosened the screws in your head / and launched you toward the city." Then the speaker observes that even though the young woman was a native of Bethlehem, "Home of Bread," she chose to enter a bakery in that city to commit her foul deed, and so she detonates her "pregnancy," and along with the "Sabbath loaves, / sesame and poppy seed," she exploded herself "into the sky."

Third Versagraph: "Together with Rebecca Fink you flew up"

In the third versagraph, the speaker catalogues the names of the victims of this so-called woman martyr: her six victims are Rebecca Fink, probably a Bethlehem resident, Yelena Konre'ev of the Caucasus, Nissim Cohen, an Afghanistan citizen, Suhila Houshy, an Iranian, and two Chinese.

Although not mentioned, the reader realizes that along with those who were killed there must have been numerous others who suffered critical injuries.

Fourth Versagraph: "Since then, other matters"

Then in the fourth verse paragraph, the speaker concludes: "Since then, other matters / have obscured your story, / about which I speak all the time / without having anything to say."

The speaker leaves the reader realizing the unspeakable nature of such an act, at least for the speaker the story is unexplainable. Even though she talks about it, she feels that she really cannot say much with meaning.

Mishol reading her "Woman Martyr" in Hebrew, with subtitles in Spanish

Agi Mishol's "Woman Martyr"

—translation from Hebrew by Lisa Katz

"The evening goes blind, and you are only twenty." —Nathan Alterman, “Late Afternoon in the Market”

You are only twenty and your first pregnancy is a bomb. Under your broad skirt you are pregnant with dynamite and metal shavings. This is how you walk in the market, ticking among the people, you, Andaleeb Takatka.

Someone loosened the screws in your head and launched you toward the city; even though you come from Bethlehem, the Home of Bread, you chose a bakery. And there you pulled the trigger out of yourself, and together with the Sabbath loaves, sesame and poppy seed, you flung yourself into the sky.

Together with Rebecca Fink you flew up with Yelena Konre’ev from the Caucasus and Nissim Cohen from Afghanistan and Suhila Houshy from Iran and two Chinese you swept along to death.

Since then, other matters have obscured your story about which I speak all the time without having anything to say.

Connect with us

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, owlcation.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)